211539 Continuous Biodiesel Production From Waste Cooking Oil and Animal Fats Under Sub/Supercritical Methanol Conditions

Wednesday, March 16, 2011: 3:45 PM
Buckingham (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
Maoqi Feng and Chee Kai Tan, Div. of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX

In conventional biodiesel production process from waste cooking oil and animal fats, free fatty acids and water present a problem and result in a low conversion.  These problems can be easily overcome in supercritical methanol process.  In our study, both waste cooking oil and animal fats were used as feedstock for transesterification under sub/supercritical methanol conditions. The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield was  over 90% at different reaction temperature and pressure: reaction temperature = 250°C and 300oC, reaction pressure = 2000 psi, 2500 psi, and 3000 psi, residence time = 10-18 minutes, and molar ratio of methanol to oil = 40 : 1. The effect of different catalysts were also studied.

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